Daughters of Hera
by apollotuba
Summary: What are the true origins of the Slayer? What is their true purpose? Spoilers for "Chosen" BtVS , all of the new BSG - esp. "Daybreak", and general references to Terminator, though nothing specific. Working on Chapter 2.


**A/N: **Standard disclaimer applies; I only own my DVD collection and my imagination, but not the characters or original universes. Many thanks to the brilliant minds who came up with such wonderful stories and characters to play with. No profit, or compensation of any kind, will ever be earned from this story, with the exception of whatever reviews you wish to leave. This is complete for now, but I may choose to continue it at some point, or tie it into another of my stories.

**Spoilers:**

Buffy: 7x22 – Chosen

Battlestar Galactica: Everything from the Miniseries through "Daybreak" (all parts) – the series finale.

General Terminator references, I was thinking of the Sarah Connor Chronicles, but no specifics. Knowledge of the movies is sufficient.

* * *

According to the oldest traditions of the Watcher's Council, the Slayer was endowed with mystical powers in order to fight the demons and forces of darkness. The Shadow Men gave her her powers in ancient times by combining the human girl with the essence of a demon. They always thought that there was no way of determining exactly who would by called next.

They also believed that Willow Rosenberg's spell calling all of the Slayers was only possible with her mystical skills.

All of this was true, after a fashion. At least partly, anyway.

Throughout the great continuum of time, sufficiently advanced technology has been mistaken for magic – and vice versa. Whether something was mystical or technological really just comes down to a matter of where faith lies in the absence of knowledge.

The witch's powers, mystical or otherwise, alone, were not sufficient to call every Slayer on Earth. No one knew, not even the witch herself, that the spell would not have worked at all without her programming skills.

A small splinter group of Watchers, a group that was almost as old as the Council itself, was a bit closer to the truth. They did not know what all of their own dictums meant, or how close to the truth they were, but they maintained their faith through centuries of oppression by the main Council.

They called the Slayers the "Daughters of Hera." They believed in the cycle of time, and that humanity had once faced a great cataclysm, perhaps multiple times, and would be faced with the same unknowable cataclysm once more. They believed that the entire purpose of the Slayer line was not necessarily to fight whatever random evils cropped up, but rather to help guide humanity through the cataclysm when it came again. They believed that with enough knowledge, they could precisely determine in what order Slayers would be called, but they did not know what information they needed to make such a determination, or how to acquire that information even if they knew what it was. They also believed that a great majority of the population, even men, had the capacity to become Slayers, but tradition and a higher power kept calling women.

They were, of course, wrong about some things as well. They had no way of knowing that the ability to become a Slayer was tied to the presence of two X chromosomes. Of course, for many centuries, they did not even know what a chromosome was, either. But on the whole, they were closer to the truth.

Only the Slayers themselves know the full truth, and they do not learn it until after they are Called. They remember the reasons that their true origins were obscured. After all, once they are Called, they gain all of the knowledge and memories of previous Slayers, including the knowledge of the First Slayer's mother. That is as far back as the genetic memory goes, but it is more than far enough to remember that one of the "Shadow Men" was in fact a woman – the First Slayer's mother, and she was the one most responsible for the creation of the Slayer line in just about any way imaginable. They also remember that the First Slayer's father was the second of the Shadow Men, and that the First Slayer actively helped to create the line. They remember that the Slayer's family only trusted one other man with their secret, and how the four of them decided that it would be best if the truth remained secret. Human history since has proved that original decision wise, and it is why most Slayers never give a hint of the truth. Every Slayer remembers coming up with the cover story that was handed down to the first Watchers, but they also remember the couple of times that a Slayer thought the world might be ready for the truth and revealed more. Usually it did not end well, frequently the girl was killed shortly thereafter by her own Watcher. The best result occurred when the Watcher in question believed his Slayer and refused to be conquered by fear. That incident led to the creation of the splinter group of Watchers that knew more of the truth.

Buffy Summers, then one of two Slayers, knew that her friend, the witch, had the coding skills that would be required to activate all of the Slayers. It didn't matter that the witch wouldn't be consciously aware of the programming she was doing, she had the skills requisite, and all code execution like that was subconscious for most anyway. As long as Willow focused on what she wanted accomplished, and a Slayer allowed her mental access to her core consciousness and programming, her subconscious mind would take care of the rest.

Buffy had seen the coming storm, and knew that it was time to prepare the world. Rumors of time travel and violence over computers indicated that the time wasn't far off. She thought of when Giles used to call computers the "dread machines." His views were maybe a little extreme, but far from inaccurate.

Now, with Hera's Daughters waking around the world, it was time to tell her friends the truth. The new Slayers may have millennia of memories, but they were still the people they had been before activation, and would need guidance and help, both in coming to terms with their new knowledge and abilities, but also in figuring out how to save humanity from itself this time and break the cycle.

Buffy knew that as soon as she activated a Beacon subroutine that lay dormant in every Slayer for just such a situation, all of the newly activated Slayers would come to her.

But first, she needed to tell her friends. She remembered how Giles and the other Watchers used to start the primer on demons and vampires for the uninitiated, and decided that it would be as good a place to start as any.

"Guys, gather 'round. There's something I have to tell you," she said one evening when all her friends were actually in the same place at the same time. Except, of course, the group in LA, but they could be told at a later time.

"B, you sure now is the right time?" Faith asked, having guessed where Buffy was going, and having a hard time getting the images of Slayers killed by their own Watchers out of her head.

"Yes, Faith, I'm sure. The world has come a long way since the last attempt, to the point where it is plausible again. And not only is it plausible, I believe that it is no more than a decade or two away, if we even have that long.

"Further, look around you, Faith. If anyone is ready, then it is the people in this room."

"Alright, B, I just hope you know what you're doing," Faith said before going completely silent.

"Buffy, Faith, what are you talking about?" Giles asked.

Buffy took a deep breath and began. "Humanity is older than you know. I have to tell you a story of bravery and cowardice, a story of hope and despair, a story of battles lost and won, a story of genocide and salvation. I have to tell you a story of man and machine, older than time itself, yet still in our future.

"My story begins on the day that the worlds ended, on a Battlestar named _Galactica_…"


End file.
